Magical Burst Super Mega Neo Climax

Revolutionary Magical Girls Unite!!

Episode 1 - Main Phase, First Move

17

APR/12

Wednesday of the first week is when you can take your first move. Please state what you want to do – basic options are listed in the rule book, but you can build relationships, search for clues, or pretty much anything your character would like to do. I would strongly recommend using at least one turn to study – your character may do this alone or with a partner, but failing to study at least occasionally might cause problems for you down the line. Studying with a partner must be done with someone you have a relationship with, and can be used to bond with that person.

Kasuga Hikaru sets aside one action for studying. No point in saving the world and failing out of school, at any rate. Her first action is spent at school, investigating. Her earlier talk with the therapist yields a phone call from a distraught student, and her investigation also yields something. (RP to follow)

Ueda Kasumi meanwhile sets an early alarm and waits outside the school gate Wednesday morning to find Kasuga Hikaru. She spots her quarry and catches up to her. (RP also to follow)

Nakano-san runs into an unexpected problem – the crime scene (apparently an alley behind a family-owned business) is no longer being surveyed by police, but crime scene tape is still up. Between her sense of propriety and her desire to not break the law, she’s going to have to keep a cool head to actually force herself in long enough to find clues. (Roll 2d6+Cool)

Tsubasa-san meanwhile turns up one lead – an elderly couple saw the abomination fleeing the shelter as they were walking in the park on the night in question. The old man, a bit of a lecher, wants to tell you all about it; his wife is particularly annoyed with him and drags him away before he can (which is probably for the best – he’s not the kind of person Suzume would fancy being alone with). The one relevant fact determined, though – the park was east of the shelter, and it ran past the old couple, which means it headed further in that direction. Maybe further investigation will yield more information.

A cool enough customer to stay around and look for a while. Not much is left after the forensics team has had their look, but Izumi studies the scene. The lack of obvious evidence leads her to look in some places that she thinks the forensics team might have missed, and though most of these turn up dead ends, one of them turns up a scrap of paper, stuck to the bottom of a trash can. It reads:

“Boss:
We’ve had our own look through the police file on the subject, just in case our killer comes knocking. Right now, they’re looking for a woman, possibly 20s-30s. They don’t think she has strong family ties to any of us, but with the people who keep turning up dead, they might reconsider. One important note: they don’t know how she’s doing it. The victims each have died of internal traumas that don’t make sense given the lack of external wounds. If it weren’t for her calling card, they might not have thought homicide at all, but”

The scrap unfortunately cuts off right as it’s getting to the juicy bit. Nevertheless, the police definitely have an idea of who, if not how.

Neiro isn’t quite sure where to start, but she’s determined to get to the root cause of her parents’ problem. The real problem, she determines, is separating reliable information from the myriad rural third-hand anecdotes passed on as fact. She’s going to have to use a considerable amount of insight to get something tangible and reliable. (roll 2d6+Sharp)

Kasumi catches up with Kasuga-san before classes on Wednesday morning, and gets her attention by mentioning a strange bird she saw. They go up to the roof to have a private chat, and Kasumi tells her about being visited by Ireko.

Ireko shows up, and Kasuga-san tries to explain what being a magical girl is all about. Kasumi, however, makes her mind up right away; she wants to help people, and being a magical girl is the only way she can. Kasuga-san barely manages to convince Kasumi not to make a wish on the spot. Kasumi agrees to accompany Kasuga-san to see what is involved in being a magical girl, and then they part ways to head to class.

Neiro realizes that she’s going to have to cut to the heart of the matter – and after searching the library for hours on end, she finds a book about physical ailments as they relate to the spirit world. The book doesn’t provide a ton of useful information, but it confirms what she felt already fairly certain about – that ailments affecting the senses and sensory input have long been associated with being “under the effect of malevolent spirits or beings”, and that while modern medicine has abandoned such ideas, they were very important across many world religions in explaining the maladies that befell people. One particularly interesting note, though: where more than one person is affected in the same way and at the same time, it was often thought that the malicious force had taken up residence nearby. (You can, from this, surmise that whatever brought this on is physically close to your home.)

Concerned with the bizarre events of yesterday, Esmeralda would like to try to investigate at school if anybody knows someone named “Ireko”. In order to obtain better results, Esmeralda will be using her status as a top student to speak directly with school authorities who have access to data on all students. This will prove necessary in order to discard all possibilities of a particularly elaborate prank.

“Ireko, huh?” The registrar – well, in reality, a teacher Esmeralda had last year who got saddled with the responsibility of registering students – looks at her with only mild skepticism. “What for?” She stops herself. “Eh, never mind, that name doesn’t sound familiar anyway.” She turns to her computer, runs a search, types a few characters. “Ireko? Nobody here by that name.” Before Esmeralda can ask, she adds: “Students or staff.” Well, that’s information at least. Someone might know Ireko at school, but Ireko herself is not affiliated with the school.

Having obtained little results from consulting with the school authorities, I decide to spend the rest of the day studying. Currently I am fairly anxious and honestly not in the mood to talk to anybody about the recent, strange events surrounding me, as such, I think I’ll dedicate the rest of my day to academic work in order to calm myself a bit.